Turkey has become a world power in construction - builders from Bosporus in more than 80 countries

Turkish cranes and bulldozers are working across the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa on construction of dams, stadiums and highways in the impulse that brought Turkey to the unprecedented economic growth.

Disappointed by slow progress towards joining the European Union, the Turkish government followed a strategy of combining the political influence with the economic power in the developing world, particularly in Islamic countries of the former Soviet Union and recently in most parts of Africa.

Turkish construction companies today operate in more than 80 countries. One is building a new metro in Dubai along with the Japanese. Others are carriers of operations on most construction sites in Kazakhstan and northern Iraq, which is controlled by the Kurds.

However, Turkish construction companies are not rivals to their giant competitors in Europe, USA, China and Japan, the value of Turkish works abroad went up from 750 million EUR in 2000 to 23.6 billion EUR in 2008. Last year it slipped to 20 billion EUR due to the global financial crisis.

The Government says it hopes to increase the value of international contracts to around 50 billion EUR by 2015.

The leading announcer of construction sector, "Engineering News-Record" listed in 1999 that four Turkish firms were among world's top 225 builders. Ten years later that number had increased to 31.

Turrkish delegations that visit developing countries typically involves hundreds of business people. Ankara has recently signed bilateral agreements on abolition of visa requirements with a number of countries, including Russia, Libya and Syria. It added a dozen of new destinations, including Baghdad and Nairobi, on the flights of the national carrier, "Turkish Airlines".

Zafer Kaglajan, Minister of State responsible for foreign trade, says that Turkey will increase its number of diplomatic missions in Africa, from 12 to 27.

- 35% of the work abroad of the Turkish firms had been performed in Africa, last year - he says.
The capital city of Kazakhstan - one of the five central Asian states with close ethnic and linguistic ties with Turkey - Turkish companies are in charge of 70% of construction jobs since 1997.
- This includes everything from roads to stadiums, shopping centers, schools and luxury hotels, says Ozer Oral, generani Secretary of Kazakh - Turkish Business Association in Astana.

Turkey has renewed its battered banking sector after coming out of the deep financial crisis in 2001 when the national economy was diminished by 8.5% and the inflation rose to about 80%.